EDITORIAL: Newtown secrecy bill threatens fundamentals of open government

Published 12:00 am, Saturday, June 1, 2013

When the parents of the children murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School step up to a microphone, it's important that we listen. Their work in helping pass Connecticut's toughest-in-the-nation gun responsibility law will save lives and is at least one piece of the puzzle in preventing another Sandy Hook.

So it was significant when the Sandy Hook families spoke out on Friday in support of legislation that would keep police records associated with the investigation of the Newtown shooting secret from the public.

But unlike public policy proposals on guns, mental health and school safety that have arisen since Newtown, this proposal would only thwart the quest of the public and government to understand what happened on Dec. 14 and stop it from ever happening again.

Sandy Hook families and sympathetic legislators, including Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, who represents Newtown, want to block the release of 911 tapes and other records that could reopen the wounds of the victims' families and other survivors. They fear an endless loop on CNN of frantic 911 calls, and irresponsible, out-of-state websites highlighting the grisliest details of the crime scene.

Journalists, First Amendment scholars, government reform organizations, police accountability advocates and others argue that these records are public information as a fundamental principle of democracy and open government.

If journalists can't review 911 calls or police records, there is no accountability for potential police abuse or incompetence. And without that accountability, we do not have a free society.

In the case of the Sandy Hook shooting, for example, it happened pretty soon after the Connecticut State Police made significant changes to its dispatching operation as a cost-cutting move. We need scrutiny over whether that impacted response to this event. All indications so far are that law enforcement and first responders performed exceedingly well, but we need to scrutinize and verify that, too, because it helps us affirm that public policy change.

The argument comes down to this: Either the Sandy Hook shooting is such a unique circumstance, the situation so painful, that we need to make a huge exception to the public's right to know. Or we believe that the public should not have a right to see basic police records.

Sandy Hook was unique, and insanely painful, both for the families and the greater Newtown and Connecticut community. But making an exception to right to know laws for this case is a tough sell when you consider other victims of painful crimes. And if we start to make more exceptions, and more, and more, which by logic we will have to if this passes, we've pretty much arrived at the second option - keeping police records secret.

That's a fundamental assault on freedom and good government, and it will ultimately cost lives, not save them, as public safety-endangering abuse and incompetence in future cases is kept secret.